Monday, April 29, 2013

First thing in the morning, I reach for the binoculars to see
if I can locate their whereabouts. Are
they still on their island nest or have they already begun their daily trek along
the shoreline? Once spotted, I eat
breakfast contentedly. If I can’t find
them, I still eat breakfast but I do so with a certain amount of anxiety…

So many things could go wrong. Yesterday, I saw the first alligator of the
season. It was a relatively small one,
maybe four-and-a-half-feet long. Still, a
gator of any size poses a serious threat to a week-old bundle of fluff.

Even a young alligator can pose a threat to baby cranes

I shouldn’t worry. Sandhill
crane parents are excellent protectors. From
hours of observation, I know how aware they are of their surroundings. During the past week, I’ve watched them scare
away water birds and bellow warning cries to other cranes flying overhead. They’ve cocked their heads skyward to track
the flight path of an osprey, jumped and spread their wings wide when startled
by large, grass-grazing carp swishing through the shallow water. In 2009, the last time a pair of cranes raised
a hatchling on our lake, I watched as the adult birds scared away both an otter
and an alligator!

In 2009, a nesting pair of cranes managed to keep an otter away from their eggs

Still, the attachment I’ve formed with this latest grey-feathered
family has superseded reason. Something
about watching the adult cranes raise their baby has triggered my own maternal
instincts. Ever since the egg hatched, I’ve
felt protective and somewhat responsible for its health and wellbeing. I know it’s not my job to tend to its needs. The best I can do is to be an observer accurately
documenting events that transpire. But that
doesn’t preclude me from hoping for a positive outcome. Especially because I know positive outcomes
don’t always happen.

When I was growing up in Yardley, Pa., our house fronted on
a small lake occupied by several families of ducks. Every year when duck eggs hatched, I’d watch in
awe and fascination as the baby birds followed their mother, swimming in a
straight line from one end of the lake to the other. As the days went by, however, I noticed fewer
and fewer chicks. Snapping turtles were
the culprits, capturing those sweet little ducklings by their webbed feet and
pulling them underwater. I tried not to
let it bother me and mostly succeeded. At
a young age, I learned to accept the inevitabilities of nature. I realized one animal’s loss was another’s
gain. The concept of survival of the
fittest became a real life lesson. After
all, every creature needs to eat, including the snapping turtles in
Pennsylvania and the alligators in Florida.

Knowledge, however, doesn’t prevent emotions from flowing. Consider how Ralph and I felt when we
realized the cranes in our lake had abandoned the second egg in their nest after
their first egg hatched.

Initially, we felt
doubt.

Deserted egg

“They’re probably going back to the nest at night to sit on
it,” I suggested after watching the birds wander away from the remaining egg that
first day.

Two days later, I felt differently.

“They’re not coming back,” I reported to Ralph after
surveying the situation from my rowboat.
“They’ve abandoned it. They’ve
even built a new nest on another spit of land.”

Upon hearing this news, my daughter Jenny – herself a new
mother of twins – was distraught.

“How could they do that?” she bemoaned by phone. “Can’t you do anything?”

Her questions pulled me back into a pragmatic mode.

“There’s nothing we can do,” I tried to explain. “If the cranes decided to abandon the egg,
there must be a reason. Maybe it wasn’t
viable or they knew they couldn’t raise both.
I don’t know why they did it but that’s just how it is.”

Sometimes, “just how it is” is the only explanation.

For now, the crane family in our lake is doing well. Every day the youngest member grows bigger,
stronger and more capable of taking care of itself. Hopefully, the baby bird will continue on the
path to adulthood without encountering any life-threatening incident.

For me, regardless of the outcome, the entire experience is
a gift from nature. I grew up watching
ducklings follow their mother in Silver Lake.
As an adult, I’m doing the same with sandhill cranes.

Although I worry about them and
fret when I don’t see them with my binoculars, most of the time I find myself smiling. I could do worse than be a watcher of birds.

Monday, April 22, 2013

During the same week that U-pick blueberry farmers in Central
Florida welcomed customers to their blueberry fields, Ralph and I welcomed a
newly hatched sandhill crane to our property.

The fruit, picked fresh from Lake Catherine Blueberries off
SR 19 in Groveland was, as usual, sweet and delicious. The fluffy baby crane following behind its
long-legged parents was, as anticipated, undeniably adorable.

I’d be hard-pressed to find a more satisfying way to
celebrate Earth Day than to focus in on the flora and fauna of our immediate
surroundings.

A Bit of History

Earth Day began in 1970 as a way to raise awareness of environmental
issues. Distressed by damage caused by
the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin initiated
a national teach-in day as a way to infuse the public with a passion for protecting
precious resources like air and water from pollution.

Nelson’s idealistic campaign may have started small but it didn’t
stay that way long.

By 1990, Earth Day had become a global phenomenon that
involved 141 countries and 200 million people.
Today, 43 years after its inception, over a billion people in 193
countries are celebrating the largest secular holiday in the world by doing
what they can to improve the quality of the world’s precious resources. People pick up trash, plant trees and clean
waterways. Some help educate others by sharing
their love for planet Earth with anyone willing to listen and learn.

Although I prefer to think of Earth Day as a year-round
celebration instead of a one-day holiday, I’m focusing today on some of the
wildlife and plant life that make my humble niche of Planet Earth so special.

That brings me to blueberries. And sandhill cranes.

Blueberries

In Central Florida, blueberries are available to the public from
mid-April to July. When we first moved
to south Lake County in 1992, there was only one U-pick blueberry farm within a
10-mile radius of our home - Mark’s U-Pick Blueberries at 18900 County Road 561
in Clermont.

Back then, our four children were little, our youngest just
a baby. But that didn’t stop us from
taking advantage of fresh fruit for the picking. Whenever Mark’s was open, our family was
there, gathering plump berries until our fingers (and mouths) were stained blue. It was a wonderful way to raise kids –
outside in the open air, picking fresh fruit alongside parents, siblings and
friends. When we came home, we made
blueberry pies, muffins and pancakes but mostly we ate quantities of
blueberries by the bowlful.

Twenty-one years later, instead of disappearing like so many
other agricultural operations, blueberry farms in Central Florida have multiplied. Within a 10-mile radius of our south Lake
County home, there are now five U-pick blueberry businesses as well as at least
one other that grows fruit exclusively for the commercial market.

Picking blueberries is a great fun for the whole family

Ripe berries by the handful...soon to be eaten by the bowlful

We still eat blueberries by the bowlful and I’m glad to say
we are now sharing our love of nature’s bounty with another generation as we
introduce our grandchildren to locally grown fruit.

However, we’re not the only beings infusing a new generation
with an appreciation for nature’s bounty.

Baby Cranes

A month ago, a pair of sandhill cranes built a nest on a
tiny island in our lake. Since then, we’ve
eagerly anticipated the arrival of baby cranes.
On April 12, one of the two eggs hatched. While the adult crane continued to sit on the
second egg for another day, it failed to open.
Rather than pursuing a futile effort, the birds abandoned the second egg
and proceeded to focus their attention on their single offspring.

Nesting crane

Day-by-day, Ralph and I watched as the baby crane followed
its parents on increasingly expanded forays away from its island home. As we sat at home popping fresh-picked
blueberries into our mouths, the sandhill cranes explored their surroundings by
poking at bugs, seeds and aquatic tidbits.

2-day-old crane with parents

An Optimistic Outlook

On this 43rd annual Earth Day, I find it
encouraging that segments of the agricultural industry in Central Florida are
still alive and thriving. Equally
reassuring is the knowledge that wildlife populations like sandhill cranes continue
to secure places to raise young and survive.
While major environmental problems unfortunately exist – climate change
threatens, litter proliferates, air and waterways remain polluted – I prefer to
focus on the positive.

Picking locally grown blueberries and watching a baby crane
discover the world are uplifting activities.
They give me hope and enable me to celebrate Earth Day with a smile on
my face and optimism in my heart.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Looking sleepy, Trillian Fischler (pictured with her mother, Amber Boas) is ready for a car-seat siesta

SIMPLY LIVING

April 15, 2013

On a recent Sunday, my daughter Amber and her family spent
the day with us. By mid-afternoon, Trillian,
our 16-month-old grandchild, was ready for a nap but even though she was
obviously tired, she was unwilling to stop playing long enough to lie
down.

“Let’s take her for a drive,” Amber suggested and I readily
agreed. When my children were little, I
often reverted to the car-ride solution, especially with Amber who tended to be
a fussy sleeper.

After installing the car seat and strapping Trillian in
place, we set out for a leisurely drive.
Less than a mile down the road, Trillian nodded off, which enabled Amber
and me to have some rare alone time together.

“Where do you want to go?” I asked but when I received no
definite proposal, I made the decision myself.

“Let’s explore,” I said, knowing a relaxing meander around
back roads is something Amber and I both enjoy.
“Let’s drive around and see what we can find. I know the first place we can stop.”

A few minutes later, we pulled off the two-lane onto a
grassy strip in an older residential neighborhood where homes sit on a few
acres and peeling wood fences delineate property lines.

“A few months ago I discovered a kumquat tree here that
nobody picks,” I said pointing to the bushy citrus plant straddling the fence
line of an unused pasture.

Amber’s eyes lit up when she saw the fruit-covered
shrub. In addition to sharing my love
for lazy meandering down untraveled roads, Amber inherited my propensity for
foraging free food, flowers and herbs. I
stayed in the car with my sleeping grandbaby, while Amber jumped out and proceeded
to fill her pockets with the ripest kumquats she could reach.

Bright orange kumquats ready to pick

Kumquats are members of the citrus family, small fruits with
a sweet edible skin and very tart flesh.
While Amber likes to eat only the skin, discarding the rest, I prefer to
pop the entire morsel into my mouth savoring the contrast between sweet and sour
sensations.

The thing about kumquat trees is that they are prolific bearers
over an extensive period. With most varieties
of backyard citrus, it’s possible to eat or juice all the fruit they produce. However, unless you’re a commercial grower
planning to sell your crop or convert it all to kumquat marmalade, there’s
bound to be waste and lots of it.

Rather than see good food fall to the ground and rot, I like
to stop by occasionally and pick a few handfuls. If the fruit is growing in someone’s yard, I
always ask for permission before picking, but if it’s growing by the roadside
and seems neglected, I consider it free for the taking.

A few minutes later, after filling her pockets, Amber got
back into the car and we ventured on, nibbling away at our foraged find.

“Where to now?” she asked after checking to be sure that Trillian
was still asleep.

“I know a place in Clermont,” I said, “where we can pick
some Surinam cherries. I passed it the
other day and the bushes were covered with ripe fruit.”

Even though they are edible, most people use Surinam cherry
bushes as ornamental hedges. In South
Florida, they are a common landscaping plant but in the central part of the
state, they are rare. The few plants I
have found have been located in older sections of town, planted at a time when
homeowners wanted to surround their yards with as many edibles as possible.

Surinam cherries are red like more many other cherries but they have their own unique taste

We were heading for the downtown region, but although
Clermont was only about 10 miles away, I chose a convoluted route that enabled
us to drive along several rural roads flanked by stands of pink phlox and other
wildflowers.

“They’re so pretty,” I said as we rambled by. “I’d like to have a field of phlox growing on
our property some day.”

By the time we reached the Surinam cherry bushes, Trillian
was beginning to make wake-up sounds, so only Amber had time to pick a few of
the ripest fruit hanging from the shrubs closest to the road. Even though her cherry cache was small, it
whet our appetite for more foraging adventures.

“Let’s do this again soon,” I suggested as I turned the car
toward home. “I can come by your house
in Winter Garden one morning when Trillian is ready for her first nap and we
can poke around back roads there to see what we can find.”

Amber nodded in agreement as we set off on the only route
since we began that took us on main thoroughfares.

From start to finish, we were gone about 90 minutes. Although our outing was brief, our
accomplishments were many. My daughter
and I spent precious alone time together.
We shared pretty country views and tasty foraged foods. More important, we talked - conversations uninterrupted
by demanding little voices.

And what about Trillian who slept through the cherry
picking, kumquat gathering, scenic vistas and interesting discussions? We returned home with one smiley, refreshed
baby ready to run and play again after her car seat siesta. Sometime it takes the fussy qualms of an
overtired toddler for parents – and grandparents - to reclaim feelings of calm
and connectivity.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Although the short-lived three-petal blue flowers of spiderwort only last a morning, by the next day new blooms have taken their place.

SIMPLY LIVING

April 8, 2013

My yard is full of spiders but only some are invertebrates. A surprising number are botanical beauties
called Tradescantia ohiensis, commonly known as
spiderwort.

Although I never intentionally
planted spiderwort, this blue-flowering Florida native has made an appearance
in our lawn and garden beds for years. Spiderworts
usually pop up erratically - a few here, a few there, with no particular show
of profusion.

Until this year.

In 2013, the population exploded. Suddenly, I began noticing spiderworts
everywhere. While the majority surrounds
the compost area, others have infiltrated the collection of weeds my husband
and I call “lawn.” Some have crept their
way alongside dirt walkways, next to the clay wall while others crawled toward
the lakeshore. It doesn’t seem to matter
what type of soil is present. Spiderworts
are thriving in sand, hard-packed orange clay as well as in rich loam.

Growing in clump, spiderwort flowers range from pink to blue to purple

The explosive growth of this
weed/wildflower has caused me to pay closer attention. While I’ve often admired its colorful blooms
– yellow stamens surrounded by three pink-to-blue-to-purple petals – I did little more
than acknowledge its presence. I assumed
it spread through some sort of underground root system since I always noticed
it growing in clusters instead of isolated specimens. However, it wasn’t until I did some research
that I realized there was much more to this hardy bloomer than a pretty face with
leaves that resemble a spider’s legs.

Spiderwort is in the Commelinaceae family of flowering plants that
are often nicknamed dayflowers. Like
others in that genus, spiderwort plants and flowers grows in clusters, with
each individual bloom lasting only part of a day. In our yard, the petals open early but by midday,
they’ve already begun to wilt. By dusk,
the once pretty blooms will have transformed into a soft jelly-like mush. The next morning, however, new flowers appear
and the cycle of beauty continues.

In Florida,spiderwort is a perennial reappearing each spring. While I was correct in assuming this
two-foot-tall wildflower spreads by underground rhizomes, I didn’t realize it propagates
by seeds as well.

I also didn’t
know it is an edible plant. I discovered
that all parts of

Tradescantia ohiensis can
be eaten – leaves,
flowers, stalks and roots. Although I
haven’t tried them yet, people who have compare the steamed stalks to asparagus. Tender young leaves can also be steamed or
used fresh in salad and the blue-colored flowers work well both as a garnish
and as a snack when working or walking outdoors.

Tradescantia ohiensis also
has medicinal
properties. The plant’s crushed leaves
are purported to alleviate the sting of insect bites while a tea made out of
boiled roots has use as a laxative.

It has been an
eye-opening experience to learn so much new information about a familiar garden
face. As it turns out, spiders and
spiderworts have more in common than just a name. Neither receives the appreciation they
deserve for all the good they have to offer. Once I stopped thinking of spiderwort as just
another annoyingly “creepy” weed, I was able to see it as the valuable
botanical beauty it is.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Begonias and dusty miller plants take root in a pair of outgrown children's boots

SIMPLY LIVING
April 1, 2013

If the shoe fits, wear it.

But what if it doesn’t?

What if your kids have outgrown their shoes or if that
designer pair of heels simply hurts too much to wear? What about your favorite sneakers with the
worn out soles and dime-size holes or the snow boots that made sense when you
lived in Massachusetts but haven’t touched ground in years?

Well…the closet is always an option. But even after the door is closed, you’ll
still know you added to the mound of unused items in your already cluttered
house.

If the shoes are still usable, you could donate them to a
thrift shop – that’s a worthy thing to do. And for really
old, worn out pairs, the trashcan sits ready. But don’t rush to discard those tired treads! Other options – equally as worthy as donating
to a thrift shop – also exists.

I have two suggestions that promise a great deal of
satisfaction especially if you’re a gardener or a person who enjoys watching
birds.

Gardeners

Take out
that pair of unwanted shoes, boots, sneakers or clogs and pour a light mixture
of potting soil in the space where your foot normally goes. Then, take a young start of a favorite plant
and push it into the soil. Succulents
work especially well as “shoe-ins” as do small flowering plants like impatiens,
begonias or low-growing herbs like thyme or oregano.

Succulents work especially well in planters made from refashioned high heels

After giving them a good watering, place your
new planter in a spot where all can enjoy their repurposed glory. It always makes me smile when I look out at
some of my favorite “shoe-ins” made out of sneakers our grandchildren outgrew,
laced-up shoes I no longer wear or worn out boots my kids left behind when they
moved away.

A pair of outgrown kid's sneakers finds new life as a container for impatien plants

Birdwatchers

Nesting
season is upon us. As one who has
watched baby birds hatch, develop and eventually fly off on their own, I can
attest to the deep pleasure derived from observing this most exciting and endearing
of wildlife encounters. But enticing
birds to build nests in a place where they can be easily observed isn’t always
as simple as it sounds. In addition to
costing money, most store-bought birdhouses require time and effort to set
up. There’s hardware to purchase and
install, tall posts to erect or chains to hang.
Even when mounted, birdhouses require a seasonal cleaning that involves
taking them down and, after emptying out the detritus, climbing up a ladder to
reattach.

A Carolina wren feeds its babies in a repurposed shoe nest

A boot-nest is so much simpler. The only necessary items needed are one (free)
unwanted boot, lace-up sneaker or shoe, a screwdriver (or hammer if a nail is
used instead of a screw) and a tree, fence or wall upon which to attach the
refashioned footwear. Using one screw (or
nail), secure the boot-nest to the surface with toe pointing down. If the footwear has a tongue, pull it outward
to make the available nest space as roomy as possible.

Before long, birds will stop by to check it out the new
fixture. Most likely, Carolina wrens
will be the first to take up residence.
These feisty, tawny-colored flyers with a white stripe above each eye
are curious and inventive nesters. When
wrens settle upon a location, the male and female birds work together to build
a nest of tightly woven fibers. In less
than a day, a bowl-shaped nest will be “shoehorned” in, transforming an
unwanted piece of footwear into a cozy shelter for a clutch of baby birds.

Some people say, “If the shoe fits, wear it,” but I prefer
the adage, “If the shoe doesn’t fit, find a new use for it!”

Imagination and creativity go a long way to turning the
unwanted into the welcome.

Welcome!

Hi! I'm Sherry Boas. Thank you for visiting my blog. As a freelance writer, my work has appeared in numerous publications and my SIMPLY LIVING column ran as a weekly feature in the Orlando Sentinel for the 10 years between 2006 and 2017. You can find all my old columns on this site plus many other essays, poems, photographs and videos. Take time to explore and come back often. If you have a comment, question or simply want to say hello, please do! I look forward to hearing from you!

ROWING THROUGH THE MIST

SIMPLY WILD!

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